Code Xana Episode 24: Virtual Becomes Reality
by James the Lesser
Summary: Ark and Mira go on a date to the Arcade.  What happens when things get a little to real?  Read to find out!


**Code Xana Episode 24: Virtual Becomes Reality**

**Author: James the Lesser/The Bunnyman**

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own These Characters! Moonscape Does! Actually, I own most of these characters, I made them up, but the place and the settings and the back round stuff is Moonscape.**

**Please read my episodes, 53-119 plus the OVA of Code Lyoko to know what is going on. Oh and Code Xana the Movie and Episode 1-23**

Mira and Ark are bored. They finished all of the homework they had and dinner wasn't for a couple more hours. "Mira we could, you know, more."

"I'm tired of your tongue in my mouth." Mira sticks hers out at Ark. "Besides I hate it when Krieger walks in on us."

"Well what do you want to do?"

"Go out and do something."

"Like what?" Mira shrugs her shoulders. "You're just bursting with ideas."

"Well, there's an arcade. Although after the fun and excitement of Lyoko I don't think those virtual machines will be fun."

"No that's a good idea. Be able to fight on a virtual world without worrying about being killed. I'll pay since you came up with the idea."

"Oh wow Ark a real big spender. Two Euros that's really going to impress me." They laugh. "It's been two weeks and no attacks. I like not having something trying to kill me but life sure is boring without it."

"Well we'll beat him soon so we'll be really bored." Ark holds Mira's hand. "But I'm sure we can think of something to entertain ourselves." Mira pushes him away.

"I do like beating you in Chess."

"Hey you only have four wins over me."

"We've only played four games." The two laugh as they leave for the arcade.

"I was so close." Sanne is in her dorm room with Skitz. "I get to here and then it beeps at me and the error comes up." Skitz rubs Sanne's shoulders trying to relax her.

"Don't worry Sanne we don't need the vehicles we've been doing fine on our own." Sanne had distracted herself from the Xana and Dante problems by concentrating on the vehicles and virtualizing them on Lyoko. "Take a break and do something besides damaging your eyes."

"My dad can always pay for new ones." In the advancement of science in the year 2025 new parts were made every day. You could get pure bio, part bio, or full mechanical parts. There was no longer a need for wheel chairs. Heart attacks were no longer the big killer since a new heart could be grown in hours or a new one ordered. Amputees no longer existed as a new leg or foot or hand could be made even better then the original. No one needed glasses or contacts since new eyes, biological or mechanical, could be made. There was debate on mechanical eyes since some people had attempted to make them able to have x-ray vision but with no cases of this occurring the issue was dropped.

"He still wears his glasses doesn't he?"

"He doesn't want to put his eyes in the hands of others. If my mom became a doctor he'd probably get new ones." Sanne leans her head back and looks up at Skitz. "You don't have to stand there and listen to me complain about my own stupidity."

"Your stupidity? I haven't understood half the things you've done already and you're the stupid one?" Skitz pats Sanne on the head. "This is ten times more powerful then the Super Computer. You just need to take your time and work it out."

"I'll figure it out sooner or later I'd just like to do it now." Sanne gets back to work getting more and more annoyed every time the computer beeps at her.

Outside of Kadic Academy Ark and Mira are at the arcade. "So what scenario do you want? We have castle invasion, one on one shooter, team shooter, war scenario…" The clerk lists off different machines Ark and Mira could choose from.

"Castle Invasion sounds fun."

"Defend or attack?" Ark looks at Mira. She shrugs her shoulders.

"Defend."

"Two Euros." Ark hands the clerk the money. "Follow me." The clerk leads the two back to a machine with six helmets connecting to it through cables. Ark and Mira sit down and pick up helmets. "Put those on." Ark and Mira do. "I'll load the game in two minutes. Get comfortable and wait to have fun in the most high tech virtual world." Ark and Mira laugh and the clerk gives them both a strange look. Ark and Mira put on the helmets and wait for the game to start. A minute or two later the game does.

"_Welcome to Castle Siege 3! You are mighty knights defending your castle from invaders! Choose your weapons!"_ Ark and Mira do. "_Before you begin know that this game is not suitable for ages twelve and younger and may cause…"_ The game continues with the warnings. "_You will need to defend the castle for one half hour to achieve victory! Begin!"_ Ark and Mira are dropped on the south facing wall of a large stone castle. Around them are computer controlled knights and in front of them is an invading army.

"Want to stay up here and wait for them to come or do what I want to do?" Ark sees Mira look at the army then up at him.

"Wait for them to get closer then we can attack them." Mira and Ark wait as the invading army advances.

"Skitz could you get me a soda from the machines? I'm sure I can get this but I'm thirsty and it is distracting me."

"Take a break and get one." Sanne doesn't get up. "Fine I'll get one." Skitz leaves the room to get a couple of sodas.

"Hmmm, if I add memory from…" As Sanne goes to try something the computer beeps at her. "I didn't even try to run the program!" That's when she notices it was the Super Scan and not the vehicles beeping. "An attack, perfect timing just as I'm about to break through this garbage and make the vehicle program work." Sanne goes to her door and waits for Skitz to come back. "Skitz, activated Tower."

"Oh, I'll call Ark, you call Krieger." They make their calls except Skitz can't reach Ark or Mira. "He must be the target."

"I'll try again when we get to the Factory. Knowing your brother and Mira they turned them off so they wouldn't be interrupted."

"You know I might have to worry about you and…"

"Don't you say it! We do not have time to argue about that!" Sanne and Skitz head for the Factory and meet up with Krieger on the way.

Back at the arcade Mira and Ark are having fun. "Ha this is so much better then Lyoko." Mira slays another mace man with her sword. "Maybe next time the others could come. Krieger would be a big help."

"He'd wipe the floor with these guys." Ark blocks a sword with his shield and strikes with his own. "Ow, ow!" He turns around and sees a pike man. "Why did that hurt so much?" Distracted Ark gets hit by a sword. "Ow!" He turns and swings at the sword man.

"Ow!" Mira gets hit and notices it hurts more then it should. "Pause Scenario." Nothing pauses. "What's going on!?" Mira and Ark move back towards the castle wondering what was wrong.

"It would be our luck that Xana attacked." The pain reminded Ark of Lyoko. "Oh crap." The invading army freezes as a teen in black appears.

"You've been having fun but let's see how well you fight when your life is on the line!"

"Xana where the hell have you been? You dropped off the face of the Earth for two weeks and now you come? I was getting worried you didn't love me anymore." Ark is quick with a comeback.

"Oh I see you have been working on your retorts. Still not as good as your father but a vast improvement from the blank looks you normally have." Xana laughs a little. "Let the slaughter begin!" He snaps his fingers and the invading army starts to move again.

"Mira we have to get back to the castle!" Ark and Mira throw their shields over their backs and run for the castle.

"Are you sure they are the targets? Knowing those two they turned their Jcells off so they wouldn't be interrupted." Skitz laughs a little as Krieger says the same thing as Sanne.

"Were they in your room?" Krieger shakes his head. "If they were doing homework in the library then they wouldn't have had their phones on." Sanne and Krieger stare at Skitz. "They have to get it done sometime or they'd both be failing."

"Good point we should have checked but its to late now we have to get to Lyoko." The three make it to the Factory without any attacks from Xana. They get in the Factory and take the elevator down to the Control Room. "Guys, I think I might have a surprise for you." Sanne takes this chance to add the changes she was working on to the vehicle programs. "If it works we'll be at that Tower in no time." She brings up the auto transfer program. "Desert Sector, go north once we get there." She launches the program. The three run to the elevator and take it down to the Scanner Room. They run to the Scanners and soon the doors close.

"Whoa!" As they land Krieger sees something different. "Is this the Overbike?"

"Yep!" Sanne is amazed she made the program work! "I call the Overwing."

"Good I want the Overboard." Skitz runs over to the Overboard and jumps on it. "Cool!" She does a couple circles on it.

"You can play with it later we have a Tower to deactivate." Sanne gets on the Overwing. "I am awesome aren't I?"

"Yes you are!" Krieger and Skitz say this at the same time as they head north for the Tower.

"This should buy us some time." Ark and Mira made it back to the castle and the draw bridge closes. "Time?" A clock appears in mid air and shows they have twelve minutes left of play. "We have to survive twelve more minutes or hope the others make it to Lyoko and deactivate the Tower."

"We could hide but we're not cowards are we?" Ark shakes his head. Mira takes the shield off her back as does Ark. "What do we do?"

"Wait for them to charge the castle. The computer warriors can help us." Ark and Skitz wait for the attack not from Xana monsters but computer characters.

"Woohoo! Now I know what Ark feels like!" Skitz is doing tricks on the Overboard as they head for the Tower.

"Be careful Skitz if you fall off we'll tell Ark." Skitz levels out the Overboard. "If you had been paying attention you would have seen the Tower." Sanne points it out.

"Why did I need to pay attention? I knew you would say something when we got close." Skitz flies down to Sanne who is on the Overwing and bumps it with the Overboard. "That is so slow. Want to go for a ride on the Overboard later?"

"The Overbike is faster." Krieger hasn't figured out how to activate the flight controls so is on the ground.

"Krieger a guy bragging about being fast isn't a good thing." Skitz laughs.

"Settle down you two we have company." Sanne points to a group of flying monsters coming. "I'm guessing Hornets."

"From that far away? I'm betting twenty Euros they are Dragons." Skitz sticks her hand out for a shake on the bet.

"They aren't that far away, deal." Sanne and Skitz shake hands. A few seconds later they discover who wins the bet.

"Poison!" Krieger dodges poison being fired by a Hornet. "Sanne use a Scattershot." Krieger has an idea and waits. Sanne charges energy in her mouth the fires. She destroys one Hornet and the other two break up. Krieger uses this chance to throw his shield and it hits another Hornet. The shield comes back to Krieger but not exactly how he wanted it to. It is to low for him to catch and it slams into the Overbike knocking him and the Overbike over. The last Hornet flies over to Krieger and sprays him with poison. "Aaaa!" The Hornet continues to spray him until Skitz flies down and strikes the Hornet with a club.

"Well that sucked." Skitz and Sanne watch as Krieger devirtualizes back to Earth still screaming in pain. "The Tower, if we hurry we can get you there…" Skitz and Sanne are too late. Three Assassins form in front of the Tower. "We really need Ark and Mira." Skitz and Sanne make a plan before attacking.

Ark and Mira make a plan before the invading army attacks. "If we fight back to back it will keep them from stabbing us in the back."

"Ok Ark but there will be a lot of them. If we fought with a wall to our backs it would stop them."

"If we found a corner and tried that it would be perfect." Ark looks around. "Over there, at the edge where the walls meet. If we stand next to each other we'll only have to fight them from one side." Ark and Mira run over to the corner and turn around to see the draw bridge break as the invading army charges into the castle.

"Sanne you can't be taking risks!" Skitz is blocking lasers with her clubs while Sanne relies on her bubble to charge up energy for shots. Sanne was missing so she tried to get closer and was nearly destroyed.

"I can't not take risks!"

"Sanne I know you know Francois."

"I know what I meant!" Sanne dodges lasers and fires an energy beam at an Assassin and hits it! The Assassin explodes.

"Well if stupid works for you it will work for me." Skitz takes off into the air climbing higher and higher as the Assassins fire at her. She gets to more then fifty meters over the top of the Tower and dives. She blocks lasers with her clubs as she gets closer and closer. Sanne fires energy beams at the Assassins but they dodge them. Sanne fires at one then the other bringing them closer together. As Skitz pulls up on the front of the Overboard she flies between the Assassins and slams her clubs into the Eyes of the Assassins. They are both destroyed. "Get in there Sanne."

"On it." Sanne runs for the Tower when a beam of energy comes out and strikes her sending her back to Earth.

"No!" Skitz turns around and sees Xana! "What are you doing?!"

"Ark and Mira are doing better then I thought. I wanted them to die by the hands of virtual warriors but you have made it to the Tower faster then I would have liked." Xana laughs. "You can fight me but I would win."

"I'll still fight you!" Skitz flies up on the Overboard ready to attack Xana and is quickly destroyed being sent back to Earth. "No, we failed."

"No we didn't." Sanne was crying and kneeling next to Krieger who was fused to the floor. His skin had continued to melt after he was sent back to Earth and made it impossible to get him in a Scanner. Thankfully he had passed out from the pain. "We just have to wait for the countdown to end."

"How long will that be?" Sanne shrugs her shoulders. "How do you find out?"

"Go up to the Control Room and check the timer." Sanne doesn't move from Krieger's side so Skitz goes to check it.

"Nine minutes? My brother could be dead by then!" Skitz gets her phone out and calls her brother but gets no answer.

"No fair, get back!" Ark and Mira are doing well. So far they, with the help of their computer controlled allies, have kept the invading army from over running the castle or from killing them but they were making ground. Ark is hit, Mira is hit, the pain is getting to them.

"Time!?" A clock appears, twelve seconds. "Come on Ark just a little longer." They fight and soon the time ends and… Nothing happens! "Xana messed with the helmet!" The game should have ended when their time was up but Xana's plan wasn't going to be foiled so easily.

"Five minutes." Skitz is sitting in the computer chair Sanne had bought waiting for the countdown to end. "Four minutes." Skitz is getting angry. Time was going to slow it had to be a part of Xana's plan. There wasn't any way that sixty seconds took this long to pass. "Sanne what happens if we just go to Lyoko before the timer ends?" Sanne hears Skitz through the speakers.

"I'm not sure. My dad just said it wasn't a good thing to do he didn't really explain why."

"Xana could be killing my brother!"

"If the transfer messes up because we go before the countdown then he will be in even more damage. Just wait ok?"

"Fine." Skitz watches as the timer gets down closer and closer. "Sanne how do I send the vehicles?"

"Let, let me do it." Sanne stands up next to Krieger ignoring the pain in her back and legs from kneeling for so long. She takes the ladder up instead of waiting for the elevator and goes over to the control panel. "Ok, Overbike and Overboard. We need to get there as fast as possible." Sanne sets up the auto transfer program. "Let's go." Sanne and Skitz now take the elevator to the Scanner Room and soon land in Lyoko.

In the virtual world of Castle Siege Ark and Mira are getting tired and the wounds they have suffered start to take their toll. "Mira stay down with your shield up." Ark pushes a knight away when another comes from the side.

"No way." Mira wasn't going to give up. She takes a hit from a mace but is able to strike a knight with a large axe before it hits her. "They better deactivate that Tower soon!" Mira and Ark take more hits. Fight off more invading warriors, with the only hope for survival being the Tower getting deactivated.

"Hurry up Skitz!" Sanne was going as fast as the Overbike could and was leaving Skitz behind.

"I'm going as fast as this goes!" Sanne slows down so Skitz wouldn't be left behind. "There's the Tower, and Xana." Xana had not left the activated Tower.

"Oh so you come back ready to fight me? Your friends are dead. Krieger won't last much longer with his wounds and the other two, well, they to have died due to wounds from a virtual world." Xana laughs as Sanne and Skitz stop. "Ready to concede defeat and become my new host Sanne?"

"Never!" Sanne is charging as much energy as she can in her mouth. She's not worried about charging to much and exploding she knows her powers won't let her down. "You can kill all that I love but I will not join you!"

"Is that a challenge or a dare? Either way I accept." Xana forms an energy orb in both of his hands. "I'll have a lot of fun killing your parents. I might keep Aelita alive for awhile just so I can make her pay for all the aggravations she gave me."

"Die!" Sanne fires a massive beam of energy at Xana hitting him. Xana breaks apart into a black mist. Sanne takes this chance to get to the Tower. After she gets into the Tower Xana forms back into Dante.

"That power, I will have it, soon."

"Mira!" Mira had fallen to a blow to her leg. Ark tries to rescue her but is soon swarmed by knights. The swords and axes and maces hack at both Ark and Mira. "Aaaa!" They both scream in pain as they feel weaker and weaker from the wounds.

"Tower deactivated, return to the past now!" A white bubble comes up and reverses time.

"Whoa." Ark and Mira are back in front of the arcade about to go in. "How about we see a movie?"

"A long movie with no violence." Mira agreeing with Ark go to see a movie.


End file.
